Scott Kupperman

Founder, Kupperman Location Solutions

Stephen Gray

CEO, Gray Construction

Trula Hensler

Senior Marketing Manager, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP

Buffalo Niagara -"Where Business Works"

Area Development Research Desk

Location USA 2012

Buffalo Niagara, located in western New
York with a population of 1.5 million (2010),
is a region that's truly on the rise. In the
past decade more than 50 American,
Canadian, and international companies have
set up shop in Buffalo Niagara, drawn to the
many unique benefits the region provides.

Located on the Canadian-American
border in what's known as the "Golden
Horseshoe," Buffalo is less than 100 miles
from Toronto, and within 500 miles of 42.2
percent of the continental
bi-national population, or 131
million people. The region is
poised on the shores of two
Great Lakes (Lake Ontario and
Lake Erie) and boasts Niagara
Falls - all of which provide
ready shipping and logistics
options, as well as sustainable
energy and plentiful water.
Buffalo Niagara is home, in fact,
to seven international ports of
entry (four auto, three rail, one
water). These ports facilitate $72 billion in
annual trade between the United States
and Canada, the world's two largest trading
partners.

Buffalo Niagara was recently ranked the
third least expensive place to do business
Buffalo Niagara
-"Where
Business Works"
among 12 U.S. metro areas with populations between one and
two million people - and here's why. Buffalo Niagara offers
competitive labor rates, which are 7 percent lower than the
national average. There is ample, affordable real estate. And the
region has a healthy, in-place infrastructure, which includes highway
systems, transportation, telecommunications, utilities,
schools, and technology.

The region's labor pool is not only affordable, it is also educated
and ready to work. Each year Buffalo Niagara's colleges
and universities produce more than 25,000 bright, skilled, and
enthusiastic graduates.

Buoyed by the area's affordability, labor force, and logistics
capabilities, key industries are experiencing great growth in
Buffalo Niagara. These include advanced business services,
advanced manufacturing, agribusiness, cleantech,
hospitality/tourism, life sciences, and logistics. Here are just a
few success stories from within those industries:

• A containerboard
mill named
Greenpac will invest
$400 million and
create 108 new
manufacturing jobs
in the city of
Niagara Falls, N.Y.
• Galvstar, a new
steel company, will
occupy 120,000
square feet of space
at a former manufacturing
facility in the city of Buffalo. The first phase of the
project will create 55 new jobs within the first year and invest
$24.9 million into the facility.
• Alpina, an international dairy-processing company headquartered
in Bogota, Colombia, that produces consumer dairy
products targeted toward consumers of Latin descent, will
build a new facility in Batavia, N.Y., and will hire 25 to 50 people
within the first five years.
• Yahoo! built a data center on a 30-acre shovel-ready site
in an industrial park in Lockport, New York, investing $300 million
and creating 125 new jobs.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise (BNE) is a nonprofit, private business
development and regional marketing organization that
works with companies that are looking to expand, relocate, or
start up businesses. BNE provides access to up-to-date market
and demographic data about the Buffalo Niagara region,
assistance in identifying sites, and information on how businesses
can take advantage of the region's numerous financing
opportunities and economic incentives. BNE is located in
downtown Buffalo, New York, the largest city - and the heart
- of the eight western New York counties that comprise the
Buffalo Niagara region.